Casefile True Crime - Case 155: Danniella Vian

Episode Date: September 5, 2020

It wasn’t unusual for 25-year-old Danniella Vian to lose her phone. So when her mother-in-law Julie received a phone call from a stranger saying he had Danniella’s mobile, this wasn’t a cause for concern. The previous day, Danniella had made a highly anticipated car purchase and spent the night out celebrating with friends. --- Episode narrated by the Anonymous Host Written by Eileen Ormsby Creative Director: Milly Raso For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-155-danniella-vian

Our episodes deal with serious and often distressing incidents. If you feel at any time you need support, please contact your local crisis centre. For suggested phone numbers for confidential support, please see the show notes for this episode on your app or on our website. At approximately 7.30am on Wednesday July 18, 2018, Mobile Alabama resident Julie Dykes-Thomas received a phone call from an unfamiliar number. A man on the other line said he had found a mobile phone that contained photos of a baby and he assumed the owner would want it back.

Julie soon established that the phone in question belonged to her son's 25-year-old girlfriend, Daniela Vayan. Julie thanked the man and asked if he could drop the phone off at Daniela's workplace, the Asian-themed restaurant chain PF Changs in Mobile's Bel Air Mall. Julie wasn't alarmed by the call. Daniela had purchased a new car the day prior and Julie thought she must have gone out to celebrate and had lost her phone at some point during the evening. This wasn't unusual for Daniela as she had lost other phones in the past.

Julie assumed it would only be a matter of time before Daniela showed up and would be relieved to know her phone had been found. At 9am, Julie called the building manager of Daniela's apartment complex and asked them to have Daniela return her call. The building manager said that Daniela wasn't at home, so Julie asked that they leave a note on her door saying that Julie knew who had her phone. Later that day, the founder of Daniela's phone called Julie again, this time offering to meet her in person to hand it over.

Julie repeated her request that he drop it at PF Changs, where the staff would keep it safe until Daniela arrived for her next shift. By 4pm, Julie still hadn't heard from Daniela. She went over to her apartment, only to find the note the building manager had pinned to the front door was still there. Daniela wasn't at home, further supporting Julie's theory that she must be recovering from the night before at a friend's house. Julie was certain she would either call at some point as she knew Julie's phone number

by heart, or would turn up the following day. Daniela's 4-year-old daughter Cora had been visiting relatives for the past week and Julie knew that there was no way Daniela would miss her little girl's homecoming. The next morning of Thursday, July 19, the man who found Daniela's phone called again. Julie was growing irritated and a little confused as to why he kept calling her instead of dropping the phone at Daniela's work like she'd requested. As he seemed reluctant to do so, Julie told him to hold onto the phone and she would let him know as soon as Daniela got in touch.

The man asked if they should be concerned, to which Julie assured him that there was nothing to worry about. It struck Julie as odd that this stranger was showing so much concern. Daniela Nicole Vian was born in Roswell, New Mexico on March 8, 1993, to mother Joy and a biological father she never knew. When she was very young, her stepfather, Bill Vian, legally adopted her and she took on his surname. Bill was in the military and the family moved around often.

Growing up, Daniela had a reasonable rapport with her stepfather, but her relationship with her mother was reportedly tumultuous. As a result, Daniela spent much of her adolescence cow-chopping and staying with friends while the Vians were stationed at the Fort Riley military base in North Central Kansas. Daniela later adopted the Instagram username, at, former street kid, in reference to her 13-age years, although it's unclear whether she was kicked out of home or was transient by choice. Fort Riley is one of the largest and oldest military installations in the United States

and is home to many families of servicemen and women. It was there that Daniela met Julie's son, Tyler Sean Thomas, who was a couple of years her senior. The two had a lot in common. Both had grown up in America's Bible Belt region in military families who believed in God, guns and patriotism. Their military upbringings had required them to move from base to base, which meant constant disruptions and a loss of friendship ties.

As such, they had both developed a necessary resilience and ability to adapt. Like Daniela, Tyler never knew his biological father and had been adopted by his stepfather, Patrick Tyler, as a baby. Although the military subculture brought them together, there was no immediate romantic connection between Tyler and Daniela. When Tyler was 18, he married another girl, but it didn't last long. Soon after, Tyler followed his stepfather's footsteps and signed up for the military, taking on a communications role.

He was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan, where he used social media to keep in touch with his old circle of friends, particularly Daniela. The two found they had other things in common besides military life, such as an interest in tattoos, and were both artistically talented. When Tyler returned to the United States, he hastily greeted his parents at their home in Mobile, Alabama, before making the three-hour trip to visit 18-year-old Daniela. Their rekindled friendship quickly grew into a relationship, and they officially started dating.

Tyler returned to the military, where he spent six months before being discharged. As soon as he was finished, he asked Daniela to move with him to Mobile. Mobile is part of America's Bible Belt, an informal region in the country's southeast that encompasses more than a dozen states with a conservative culture. The overall crime rate is 126% higher than the national average, with violent crimes such as rape, homicide, and aggravated assault trending upwards over the past 10 years. It has close to the highest crime rate of anywhere in Alabama, and almost double the national average murder rate.

In Mobile, individuals have a one in 17 chance of becoming a victim of any crime, and a one in 132 chance of becoming a victim of a violent crime. Mobile has a history of economic swings, with much of its income derived from a robust domestic and international shipping industry through the Mobile ports. The western neighborhoods where Tyler Thomas' family lived were characterized by pawn shops, payday loans, dollar stores, fast food chains, and billboards advertising no win, no fee personal injury lawyers. The most popular activities in the area, besides hunting, all typically involved water, with

residents taking advantage of Mobile Bay, the Mobile River Delta, and the nearby Gulf of Mexico to take part in sailing, fishing, kayaking, swimming, diving, or just hanging out on the beach. Daniela Vaillan didn't hesitate to move to Mobile with Tyler, but as the couple had no money, they moved in with Tyler's parents, Julie and Patrick, and his brother PJ. From that moment on, Daniela only had sporadic contact with her own family, preferring to blend in with the Thomas family instead. From the outset, Tyler and Daniela's relationship was rocky.

Tyler hadn't been the same since leaving the military. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and didn't respond well to conventional treatment. Instead, he self-medicated with drugs, which culminated in a heroin habit. Tyler was no stranger to the police and was arrested for various felony and misdemeanor offenses. Yet, Daniela and Tyler loved each other. They both designed tattoos, and over time Daniela required several, including a mandala style flower on her left shoulder, a gray outline of an elephant on her right wrist,

an outline of a heart, a Buddha, and an American flag with a unicorn where the stars should be on her inside right thigh. On her left collarbone, she had a matching tattoo to Tyler, which was the image of two graveyard headstones sitting side by side. Inside the tombstones were the words, to die by your side. In early 2013, Daniela and Tyler discovered that they were going to be parents. Determined to provide a good life for their newborn, they got their own apartment in Mobile and prepared to become a family.

Their daughter, Cora, was born in late 2013, but for the first month, she was placed into the custody of her grandparents, Julie and Patrick. Daniela and Tyler tried to make things work, but it soon became evident that their own house wasn't a healthy environment in which to raise their daughter. Although Daniela yearned to be a good mother, she felt the only way to do so was to let Cora stay at Tyler's parents' house most of the time. Tyler's heroin addiction continued to be a major issue, resulting in several arrests and stints in rehab.

The couple fought constantly, accusing one another of infidelity, and their arguments sometimes turned into physical altercations. Daniela bounced around a number of different jobs in restaurants and bars around Mobile. She made friends easily enough, but due to her busy work schedule, her friends tended to be workmates. In order to sustain herself through double shifts, she sometimes turned to Vivant, a prescription amphetamine used to treat ADHD, similar to the better-known Adderall. As well as increasing alertness and decreasing appetite, Vivant's can cause the user to

become jittery and anxious. It is tightly controlled, as it can easily be abused and cause dependence. Daniela didn't have a prescription, but sourced the drug via other methods. On March 25, 2015, during one of the many rough patches in the couple's relationship, Tyler filed a petition against Daniela for custody of Cora. In it, he wrote, I have been the sole provider for Cora since she was born. I am the only parent with a driver's license and the only parent with a steady work history.

I have gathered evidence of Daniela using drugs around Cora and evidence of her being unfit as a mother. I have been doing everything in my power to have contact with my daughter, and it has been denied. I do not plan on keeping Cora from her mother. I simply need a way back into my daughter's life. When the case came up in Family Court in October, Tyler failed to appear, and the judge dismissed the application.

By this point, Cora was living with Julian Patrick, who started to discuss taking on full custody. Although Daniela missed having Cora with her all the time, she knew the stability that Julian Patrick could provide was in Cora's best interests. Tyler's heroin addiction continued to worsen, and in early 2016, he went to jail for breaking and entering. During his incarceration, Daniela started dating other people, but she and Tyler reunited after his release.

At the toxic nature of their relationship, she told her concerned friends that Tyler wasn't just her boyfriend and the father of her child, but had also been her best friend for seven years. He continued to spend time in and out of jail, living with Daniela in their apartment whenever he was released, even when they weren't romantically involved. Towards the end of 2017, Tyler was serving time for failing a drug test that was a condition of his probation. He was then moved into rehab, where he was allowed to spend one day a week out with Daniela.

Upon his release, Daniela announced that she was pregnant. Tyler was overjoyed and vowed to stay clean. After they visited the doctor and established the time of conception, however, it became clear that Tyler couldn't be the father. Nevertheless, he told Daniela he would support her throughout the pregnancy until she gave the child up for adoption. By December, Daniela had started to show, and Tyler lashed out in anger and humiliation at being faced with proof of her infidelity.

The situation became untenable for Daniela, and she decided to try and reconnect with her mother, Joy, who was living in North Carolina. Daniela wanted to go back to college and work toward some sort of future for herself, Cora, and perhaps the new baby. She also wanted to get away from Mobile and put some distance between herself and Tyler. Cora stayed behind with Julian Patrick while Daniela traveled to North Carolina. But the move was short-lived. Daniela missed Cora and Tyler, so she soon returned to Mobile.

Upon her return, Daniela started working at PF Changs, where one of her fellow servers, Hannah Jakobowski, took her under her wing. When Daniela told her she didn't have a car because Tyler had wrecked it some time earlier, Hannah offered her a ride home, and the two were delighted to discover they lived just minutes away from one another. They struck up a friendship, and from then on, Hannah gave Daniela a lift to and from PF Changs nearly every shift, even if Hannah herself wasn't working. The two women were similar in many ways, and when Hannah started attending cosmetology

school, Daniela was only too happy to help out. She let Hannah try out hair colors and styles on her as she enjoyed changing her style often. At various times, Daniela had blonde, brown, red, blue, green, and even multicolored hair. Daniela worked almost every single day and often pulled double shifts in a bid to save money. She needed enough to fund her upcoming maternity leave and also hoped to buy a car, which would give her freedom and the ability to see Cora whenever she wanted. The father of Daniela's unborn baby had no interest in raising his child, but offered

financial support if she wanted to bring the child up herself. Daniela decided to proceed with an open adoption, which meant she was able to meet potential adoptive parents. After screening through applications, Daniela decided on a married couple from Mobile, a teacher, and a police officer. On June 6, 2018, Daniela gave birth to a baby boy. The adoptive parents joined her during the birth, and she let them cut the umbilical cord, hoping it would help form an immediate bond for the new family.

The adoptive parents were willing for the child to know who Daniela was, but she didn't think that was a good idea. Through Alabama law, the birth mother can change her mind for up to five days after the adoption, but Daniela and her son's adoptive parents established an agreement that she would have up to six months. On the day of the birth, Tyler overdosed on heroin in his car, but an ambulance resuscitated him with Narcan, which immediately negated the effects of the drug. Tyler proceeded to the hospital as though nothing had happened, and was there to support

Daniela through the birth of her little boy. Afterwards, he turned himself in to be put back in jail for once again violating the conditions of his parole. On the evening of the birth, Daniela sent a text message to Julie to say she was sore but okay and that she hadn't yet seen her baby and wasn't sure if she wanted to. She wrote a letter for her son, which she gave to his adoptive parents to give to him on his 18th birthday. She then left the hospital without holding her baby boy.

Despite reassuring Julie that she was in good health, Daniela had experienced complications during labor that continued after she left the hospital. She was in a great deal of pain and was bleeding heavily, but three days after the birth, Daniela returned to work. Determined to save money, she pushed herself hard and didn't give herself time to heal. Instead, she relied on Norco, a strong prescription painkiller similar to the better known Vicodin, which can cause drowsiness. Users are warned never to mix Norco with alcohol.

With the birth and adoption complete and Tyler back in jail, Daniela seemed more motivated than ever to work toward a better life for herself and Cora. Her main priority was buying a car, as she didn't like being reliant on friends and Tyler's family to drive her around. On June 17, less than two weeks after giving birth, Daniela wrote a list of goals in her journal using fancy writing and illustrating the page with tattoo-style pictures. She had successfully saved up enough money to place a down payment on a car and was taking the necessary steps to secure the one she wanted.

Her dreams and goals for what came next related mostly to Cora. Daniela wrote that she wanted to get Cora's bedroom together, take her to school every day, get her involved with a sport or dance, and have Cora sleep over 80% of the time. The other goals related to getting her finances under control by paying down her bank overdraft and credit card. She also wanted to start school and focus on being more positive. At the top of the page, Daniela wrote, We need to see what the world could be, not what it is.

On Monday, July 16, 2018, Daniela went to the Pearl Motors car dealership to purchase a dark blue 2014 Chevrolet Cruze. Pearl Motors was a buy here pay here dealership, which meant it specialized in older used cars with high mileage for clients with a bad credit history. Buy here pay here dealers often provide on-site financing options for those who are unable to get credit elsewhere, offering loans with higher interest rates. The loan comes directly from the dealer, who will often stipulate that the repayments have to be made in person in cash.

The car Daniela wanted was worth around $10,000, which required a down payment of $1,500. Pearl Motors agreed to let her pay $1,000 of the down payment in cash, with the remaining $500 to be paid by the end of the month. However, she had to pay for her insurance via a bank transfer, which was a problem, as Daniela's bank account was overdrawn. She didn't have enough money to pay the full amount owed to her overdrawn account as well as her insurance, so she decided to deposit the cash into Julie's account, from which the insurance would then be paid.

Pearl Motors required a number of documents from Daniela, including a letter of recommendation from her landlord stating she was reliable in paying her rent. She borrowed Julie's car and spent the day going back and forth getting all of the paperwork together so that she could pick up the car the next day. When she finally got everything sorted, she returned the car to Julie's house in the afternoon. It was just six weeks since she had given birth and she was exhausted and still in pain. Daniela lay down on the couch and took her painkillers. She was staying at Julie's that night.

Julie's husband Patrick, son PJ, and little Cora were away visiting Patrick's sister in Selma about a three-hour drive north. They had been away for almost a week and were due back in Mobile on Thursday, July 19. Julie and Daniela discussed their upcoming plans. The following day, Julie intended to drive Daniela to the bank and then to Pearl Motors to pick up her car. Once Daniela had the car, she wanted to go shopping for some school supplies for Cora, including a tie-dyed backpack the little girl had previously admired.

After that, Daniela planned to meet up with some friends and go out for a celebratory drink. On Thursday, when Cora and the rest of the family were due back, Daniela would return to Julie's to surprise her daughter with the backpack and stay overnight so they could cuddle up together. As they discussed their plans, Daniela barely moved. She apologized to Julie for being so tired, saying, This medicine just makes me really sleepy. On the morning of Tuesday, July 17, 2018, Daniela rose early.

All of the paperwork required to finalize her car purchase was in a large envelope that she shoved into her large, satchel-type handbag. Julie then drove Daniela to the bank as planned so she could deposit cash into Julie's account to pay for her car insurance. Just after 11am, Julie dropped Daniela off at Pearl Motors and waited out the front as she signed the paperwork and picked up the keys. Ten minutes later, Daniela finally sat in her Chevy Cruze and got the final rundown on its features.

These included a global positioning system, or GPS, that would be attached to the car to track all of Daniela's movements until the car had been paid off. This was designed to make repossession of the car easier if a buyer failed to make their repayments. The GPS plugged into a port under the steering column and would ping the car's location every 4 minutes when it was in motion and every 4 hours when the vehicle wasn't in use. If it became disconnected, the company would receive an alert and would go in search of the car.

Daniela had signed an acknowledgement that the GPS was there and that she would not attempt to remove it. At 11.35am, Julie waved Daniela off as she left the car yard. From there, Daniela drove the 24 minute journey to her home at the 701 South Apartments Complex on University Boulevard. She hadn't been going out lately, but was determined to celebrate her new purchase. Although it was a Tuesday, Daniela was optimistic she would find someone willing to go out for a few drinks, as most of her friends worked in the hospitality industry.

In addition, the 89th Major League Baseball All-Star Game was on that night and would be televised live, making it more likely that people would be out and about. Mobile was a baseball mad city, having produced more baseball Hall of Famers than any other city in the US outside of New York and Chicago. Daniela remained at home for several hours and in the afternoon, she started making plans for the evening. Just before 4.20pm, she texted her friend and co-worker Hannah to ask if she was at work, as Daniela was thinking of heading over to the mall where PF Changs was located to

buy Kora's school supplies. Hannah responded that she would be starting work at 5 o'clock. A few minutes later, Daniela sent a Facebook message to Randy Capps, a former co-worker she used to work with at a bar called Hurricane Grill and Wings. As the bar was in the same area as her errands, Daniela considered stopping by for a drink. She responded that he was indeed working that night, but he now worked at Hero's Sports Bar and Grill, where she would be welcomed to come by. Daniela responded, but I don't like it going to a place I've never been before.

Hurricanes is just along the way of whatever responsible things I have to get done so I can stop by and drink mid-bill paying. Randy replied, Ella, well, I hear ya, well, I'm here, not like you don't know anyone. At 5.20pm, Daniela left her apartment, dressed casually in black leggings, a dark colored shirt with a mellow mushroom pizza chain logo on the pocket, and black high-top converse sneakers. Her ever-changing hair was currently dark brown with red tips around the fringe, and she wore it up in a ponytail.

She also wore a pink baseball cap that had a cartoon donut sewn on the front, the type favoured by cartoon character Homer Simpson. Daniela stopped at a small strip mall on University Drive before continuing to the shop's mall at Bel Air at 5.50pm, a shopping centre offering a mix of department stores, specialty shops, cafes and restaurants. P.F. Chang's sits on the outside of the mall, just to the right of the main entrance. At the mall, Daniela bumped into a co-worker and the two had a brief exchange, with Daniela saying how relieved she was to finally have a car.

She couldn't stop to chat long because she was on a mission to buy Cora her backpack for school. After she was done shopping, Daniela made the 18-minute journey to Hero's Sports Bar and Grill, where her former colleague Randy was on duty behind the bar. At 35 years old, Randy was 10 years older than Daniela. He had a checkered past with previous arrests for drug possession, possession of stolen property and driving under the influence. Just after 6.30pm, Daniela settled in at the bar where she could chat to Randy between

him serving drinks. Hero's was a large sports bar with multiple televisions screening various sporting events. The two chatted, and before long, two more of Randy's friends entered the bar and sat nearby. They were Denson White, who was aged in his early 40s, and Mallory Miller Kenworthy, who was in her mid-30s. Denson, Mallory and Randy all played on the same softball team. There was supposed to be a game that night, but it had been called off due to the rain,

so Mallory and Denson had decided to go to Hero's to watch the All-Stars game. Denson, Mallory and Daniela sat together, watching the game and chatting to Randy while he worked behind the bar. It was Daniela's first time meeting Denson, but she and Mallory had met before as they had friends in the same social circles. Mallory had a newborn baby, and like Daniela, it was her first night out since giving birth six weeks earlier. Denson had just returned from a work trip away and had driven to Hero's in his rental

car. He worked for APM terminals at the Mobile Port, a busy dock where 1,200 shipping containers went in and out on an average day. Denson was a dealmaker who had received many honors for the business he brought into Mobile. At 7.14pm, Daniela responded to a text from Julie regarding some local gossip. One minute later, at 7.15pm, she messaged her friend and colleague, Hannah, to say she hadn't seen her car near PF Changs when she stopped at the mall. Hannah responded that she was indeed working that evening.

At 7.36pm, Daniela messaged Hannah again, saying, I'm drinking happily at a sports bar. To which Hannah replied, hell yes, taking advantage of the freedom. Daniela, Mallory and Denson made plans to move on to Dublin pub and eatery just half a mile down the road. It was an Irish themed bar that had opened two months earlier, with live music and a lot more atmosphere than Hero's. They agreed to meet Randy at a third bar, Oli's Mediterranean Grill, when he finished

work later that night. Oli's was another former workplace of Daniela's and was closer to her apartment. She expected to finish work around 11pm and said he would text them when he was leaving. At 8.25pm, Daniela sent a text to Hannah that read, Okay, I'm going to drive now, but should I? I don't know. She had consumed a few drinks while at Hero's but didn't appear to be drunk. However, it's possible that she may have taken a couple of her Norco painkillers which

could result in serious side effects when mixed with alcohol. At 8.57pm, Daniela and Denson became Facebook friends and Denson sent Daniela an invitation to a party at his house that was to be held a couple of weeks later. At 9.12pm, Daniela hugged Randy goodbye and she, Denson and Mallory left Hero's for their next destination. As soon as Daniela was outside, she sent two Facebook messages to Randy but he didn't respond to either. At 9.16pm, she attempted to call Hannah, who was still working and didn't answer.

At 9.46pm, Daniela sent Hannah a short video via the messaging app Snapchat of her sitting alone in the driver's seat of her car. The clip contained nothing out of the ordinary, although Hannah did notice that Daniela appeared to be a little intoxicated. As is the case with Snapchat messages, the video played once before being automatically deleted. Hannah tried to call Daniela shortly afterwards but there was no answer. According to the GPS records in Daniela's car, she left the Hero's car park at 10.05pm,

nearly one hour after exiting the bar. It isn't known whether she stayed in the car park by herself the entire time or caught a lift to Dublin's earlier with Denson or Mallory before returning for her car later. At 10.08pm, Daniela's car pulled into Dublin's where she continued socializing with Denson and Mallory. At some point, Mallory announced that she was going to a pool hall called the Runway Bar to catch up with friends and would meet up with Daniela, Denson and Randy later at Ollie's. However, Denson said he had decided to go home instead of continuing on.

At 10.44pm, Randy sent Daniela a Facebook message to let her know he was about to finish work and would head straight to Ollie's. One minute later, at 10.45pm, Daniela, Denson and Mallory each left Dublin's in their separate vehicles. Randy arrived at Ollie's three minutes later. Unable to find the group, he called Denson at 10.57pm but there was no answer so he settled in to wait for the others to arrive. The drive from Dublin's to Ollie's was only 2.8 miles and required a left turn out of

the car park. Denson's house was in the opposite direction and required a right turn. According to the GPS data from Daniela's car, upon leaving the car park, she also took a right turn, which was odd given she knew the area incredibly well and was fully aware that Ollie's was in the opposite direction. Mallory saw this manoeuvre and noted it as strange but continued on to the Runway Bar to meet her friends without giving it much thought. Denson later said he wasn't aware that Daniela was following him until 15 minutes later when

they were passing through a quiet industrial area and she flashed her lights to indicate she wanted him to pull over. Although there were open gas stations at a waffle house nearby, at 11.05pm, the two cars pulled into a dark, closed shell gas station at 35.50 government boulevard in Mobile. Once they stopped, Daniela told Denson that she had lost her mobile phone. At 11.07pm, the GPS in her car made its final location call. The GPS installed by Pearl Motors was plugged securely into an outlet underneath the steering wheel and was highly unlikely to come out accidentally.

The fact that it made its final signal at 11.07pm indicated it had either been unplugged or that a fuse had blown, either coincidentally or because it had been tampered with. After this, it stopped sending locations back to the base. Denson then called Daniela's phone via Facebook Messenger. It is unclear why he did this instead of dialing her number, but the most likely reason is that Daniela had a habit of losing and changing phones and hadn't yet memorized her own number. It would have been even more difficult for her to remember if she was under the influence. Meanwhile, Mallory had arrived at Olly's after a short stop at the runway bar and was

sitting with Randy waiting for Daniela to arrive. At 11.17pm, Denson called Randy, explaining that Daniela had lost her phone and he was going back to Dublin's to look for it. At 11.24pm, both Daniela and Denson's car drove out of the Shell gas station and turned towards Dublin's. Daniela followed Denson for a while before making a turn towards a more populated part of town. Just over 10 minutes later, at 11.37pm, Denson sent Mallory a text message from Dublin's

that contained a selfie of him standing at the bar. Underneath the photo, he wrote, Getting phone, just got back here, but somehow lost to Daniela. A server at Dublin's had found Daniela's phone on the back of a car and placed it behind the bar for safekeeping. Denson retrieved it from the bartender and at 11.52pm, he called Daniela via Facebook Messenger. It's unclear why he tried to do so considering he had her phone and she presumably had no

way of answering the call. When there was no answer, Denson wrote Daniela a Facebook message that read, Call me, Dublin had your phone. At approximately midnight, Denson drove to Wally's, where Randy and Mallory told him that Daniela hadn't shown up. At 12.04pm and then again at 12.33am, Denson attempted video calling Daniela via Facebook Messenger. When there was no response, he asked Randy what to do with the phone.

Randy suggested that Denson take it to PF Chang's the next day, where Daniela could be reunited with it on her next shift. Denson agreed and left Dublin's, taking Daniela's phone with him. At 7.30 the next morning of Wednesday, July 18, Hannah sent Daniela a text message asking if she was okay. Assuming her friend had had a big night out, Hannah didn't expect to receive a response right away and after sending the text, she went about her day. At the same time, Julie Thomas received a phone call from Denson to say he had found

Daniela's phone. He gave no indication that he knew Daniela personally or had been with her the previous night. Julie was under the impression that he was a complete stranger. She told Denson to drop the phone off at Daniela's workplace, but he didn't follow this suggestion. Instead, he called Julie twice more throughout the course of the day. She eventually told him to just hang on to the phone and that Daniela would be in touch

once she reappeared. On Thursday, July 19, Julie's husband Patrick, son PJ, and granddaughter Cora returned home from their week-long visit to see Patrick's family. Over lunch, Cora told Julie all about the trip away. As the afternoon wore on, Julie anticipated Daniela would walk through the door at any moment. Although Daniela was often late for her visits, Julie expected that she would have turned up in time to welcome Cora home after a week away and couldn't help but be annoyed by

her tardiness. When Thursday night rolled around and there was still no word from Daniela, Julie started to worry. Cora had been tucked safely in bed without a good night kiss from her mother, which was highly unusual. Despite any other issues going on in Daniela's life, she was loving and reliable when it came to her daughter. Julie tried privately messaging Daniela on Facebook, which was Daniela's preferred method

of contact. She kept checking to see whether there was a response, but the message hadn't been viewed, and Facebook indicated it had been two days since Daniela was last active. Unsure what else to do, Julie posted a message for Daniela on her public Facebook feed, asking her to get in touch. When Daniela's friend Hannah arrived at work that evening, one of her colleagues asked if she had spoken to Daniela, as no one had been able to get a hold of her. Hannah realized she had never received a response to the text message she'd sent to

Daniela the previous morning. She texted her again via phone and Facebook Messenger, but received no response. Sensing something was wrong, Hannah messaged mutual friends to see if anyone had heard from Daniela. One person responded that on Tuesday night, Daniela had mentioned she was going to Hero's Sportsbar and Grill. Hannah called Heroes and asked the manager to check the car park for a dark blue Chevy cruise, but there was no car there matching that description.

The manager offered to check who had been working on Tuesday night to see if anyone recalled seeing Daniela. He called Hannah back shortly after to say that the bartender on duty, Randy Capps, confirmed that Daniela had been at Heroes and had been hanging out with Denson White and Mallory Miller Kenworthy. Hannah didn't know Denson, but was able to track him down through Facebook. At 9.17pm on Thursday, July 19, she sent him a Facebook message that said, Hey, I'm Daniela's friend.

We haven't heard from her since Tuesday night, and we are all very concerned. If you know where she could be at, or have any information, please message me back. Later that night, Denson called Hannah to say that he hadn't seen Daniela since Tuesday night, but he had her phone and had been trying to return it to her. Afterwards, Hannah drove to Daniela's apartment, but found no sign of her there. She sent another message to Daniela on Facebook that said, Hey, what's up? Everybody's worried. The next morning of Friday, July 20, Hannah drove by Daniela's apartment on her way to

cosmetology school, but it was clear that she hadn't been home. Daniela was scheduled to work at 10am shift at PF Changs, so Hannah dropped by the restaurant to see if she had shown up. Realizing she hadn't, Hannah called Julie and then messaged Denson to let them know that there was still no sign of Daniela. Julie, Hannah and Denson exchanged a flurry of calls and text messages and decided it was time to report Daniela missing. Although it wasn't unusual for the fun-loving 25-year-old to be out of contact for a day

or two, the fact she had missed work and hadn't shown up to greet her daughter were both major red flags. Julie and Denson arranged to meet at the police station on Airport Boulevard and Doors, where Julie could file a missing persons report and Denson could hand over the phone and make a statement. Once there, they were instructed to go to the office on Government Street where the missing persons liaison unit was located. On the way, Julie called Hannah to ask if she knew the six-digit number to unlock Daniela's

phone. Hannah advised that it was Daniela's employee number and she gave this number to Julie. Once Julie had unlocked the phone, she read through all of the text messages Daniela had sent and received during the past week and also listened to her voicemail. By the time Julie arrived at the missing persons liaison unit, Denson had provided his statement to the police. Hannah also arrived to make a statement about how out of character it was for Daniela to be out of contact for so long and not to show for her shift when she needed money the most.

Julie provided as much information as she could and surrendered Daniela's phone to the police. An officer later accompanied her to Daniela's apartment where a crime scene officer met them to conduct an assessment but nothing seemed to be missing or out of the ordinary. When Julie returned home, she logged on to her computer where Daniela had saved the login details for her various social media accounts. She signed into Daniela's Facebook account where she noticed several missed calls from Denson White.

At 11.11pm on the night Daniela was last seen, just minutes after the GPS on her car pinged for the last time, Denson's Facebook account had left a voice message to Daniela's account. It appeared to have been left by accident and featured rustling noises accompanied by a female voice, believed to be Daniela's. Warning, some listeners may find the following audio clip distressing. A minute later, another seemingly accidental voice message was left from Denson's Facebook account to Daniela's, featuring much of the same rustling noises as well as a muffled male voice speaking to the female and instructing her not to touch something.

Julie called the police to tell them about the voice messages and they advised her not to log back in to Daniela's Facebook account in case it tainted evidence. When Julie inquired about CCTV footage that may have been captured at the various locations Daniela had visited, the police told her no such footage had been found. Julie was therefore shocked when a news outlet reporting on Daniela's disappearance featured CCTV footage from the Shell gas station where the last confirmed sighting of her had taken place. The footage was dark and grainy with poor visibility but it showed a car pull in at

the Shell at 11.05pm. Seconds later, another car pulled in beside the first. A couple of minutes later, the second car left and then immediately after, another one pulled in. Given the poor quality, it was impossible to tell whether the second car had left and returned or if a different third vehicle drove in after the second car departed. No people were visible in the footage due to its poor quality. Julie called the police demanding to know why the footage was being aired on television

when she was told that no footage existed. Rather than responding, law enforcement officials contacted the news station and demanded the footage be removed. The news outlet complied but no further explanation was given for the police action. On Tuesday, July 24, less than one week after Daniela was last seen, Julie and her husband Patrick attended court to finalize custody arrangements for Cora. This process had already been going on for several months prior to Daniela's disappearance, with Daniela's full cooperation, and a majority of the paperwork had already been signed and

filed. The plan had been that Daniela would give Julie and Patrick full custody of Cora until she could get her life in order. It was clear from Daniela's journal entries about organizing Cora's bedroom and having her sleep over 80% of the time that she hoped to regain custody sooner rather than later. Daniela had always planned to attend the court hearing, but as she didn't show up, Julie and Patrick were awarded custody of Cora. The following day, Tyler was released from jail and returned to the apartment he shared

with Daniela. They immediately took the few items of value that Daniela owned, including her video gaming system and television, and pawned them. When Julie found out, she bought the items back. That same day, the Mobile Police confirmed that the case had been handed over to the Homicide Squad. They also released a statement clarifying that while homicide detectives were involved, there wasn't any evidence to suggest that a homicide had occurred.

As the GPS device was no longer functioning on Daniela's car, Pearl Motors hadn't been able to track its location and there had been no reported sightings of the Chevy crews anywhere. Investigators were monitoring Daniela's bank account activity and were alerted that her Visa debit card had been used at a gas station. However, this was linked back to Tyler, who had found the debit card when he had gone through the apartment. Hannah had been a frequent visitor to Daniela's apartment and on Friday, July 27, Tyler gave her a key and asked if she noticed anything unusual or out of place.

Daniela noted that all of Daniela's possessions were still there, including her makeup, clothes and her phone charger. It was not the scene of someone who had chosen to run away. The police also searched the apartment. Daniela kept a whiteboard with a record of her goals and the amount of money she had saved so that she could keep track of her progress. Based on the figures on the board, Daniela had around $1200 cash left in savings, but if that money was in the apartment, there is no official record of it being found.

Tyler was unable to maintain the apartment's rental payments and was soon evicted. The building manager wouldn't allow Julie in to collect Daniela's possessions, instead dumping them unceremoniously on the pavement outside and letting Julie know she could come and collect them. Julie went directly over to pick up everything Daniela owned, then she and Tyler examined all of the items, but they found no clues as to where Daniela might be. On Friday, September 14, almost two months since Daniela's disappearance, Mobile Police responded to a complaint of unlawful imprisonment and sexual abuse at a home in the town of

Theodore, 14 miles south of Mobile. Three people were detained and a man named Jason Corey Dykes was arrested on charges of domestic violence, strangulation, assault and unlawful imprisonment. Jason, who was Julie Dykes Thomas' nephew, was accused of locking a former girlfriend in a room where he beat and raped her. According to multiple sources, the alleged victim claimed that Jason had said something threatening about Daniela Vianne. However, a raid of the property turned up nothing of interest in the Vianne investigation

and police determined that Jason's alleged crimes were unrelated to Daniela's disappearance. The allegations were later proven to be false and Jason was cleared of all charges and ruled out as a person of interest in Daniela's investigation. Daniela's loved ones were frustrated by the lack of progress in the case. Julie set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money, which she used to print out flyers that were handed out and put into letter boxes in the area. She also had billboards mounted that featured Daniela's photo and details about her disappearance. Just before Christmas, a frustrated hanner left a one-star review on the Mobile Police

Department's Facebook page, writing, Daniela Vianne has been missing for five months. Five months her baby girl hasn't seen her mum. Five months Daniela hasn't gotten to hold her daughter. Five months her family has had to sit around and wonder when we will all get answers. The Mobile Police Department knows who she was with last, but they say they have run out of leads. It's crazy that Mobile Police will post about robberies, stolen property, and post surveillance

videos asking for help, but not for Daniela. They post about awards police officers are receiving, but can't post one missing picture of Daniela. They should hand out awards to police officers that find missing people, not stolen property. Daniela was stolen, a person was stolen, not some groceries, a person. I have lost all faith in the Mobile Police Department. I have hope that some way or another Daniela and all the missing girls from Mobile will be found, but it won't be from the help of the Mobile Police Department.

They sweep the missing under the rug. Daniela's friends and family maintained pressure on the police to ensure they continued the search. Several vigils had been held since Daniela's disappearance, and on March 8, 2019, 20 of Daniela's loved ones gathered in Medal of Honor Park to commemorate what would have been her 26th birthday. Julie purposefully kept Cora away as she didn't want the young girl to associate birthdays with sadness.

Although all the local news outlets were informed, only one member of the media attended. A prayer was said, and then candles were lit on cupcakes as Daniela's friends and family saying happy birthday. Months continued to go by without any reported sightings of Daniela or her car, and no further clues emerged. Tyler realized how important it was that Cora received as much support as possible and stepped up in his role as parent. He stopped using drugs and focused on getting a job so he could provide for his daughter,

with his love for Cora motivating him to make better decisions. Many theories were put forth by those who knew Daniela and by internet sleuths who became obsessed with the unresolved case. The theories ranged from Daniela running away to start a new life, to accidentally driving her car into a body of water, to ending her own life. The more sinister theories suggested she was the victim of a botched carjacking, that she went to score drugs and was attacked in the process, or was deliberately targeted to settle a debt.

One of the more extreme theories was that she fell victim to the sex trafficking trade. No evidence emerged to support any of these. One of the most astonishing details of the case was that Daniela's car hadn't been spotted. As it had only been purchased on the day of her disappearance, it didn't yet have permanent license plates and still bore the dealer tags. While this would have made it easier to spot, it also may have made the car an attractive target for thieves who could give it a new identity in a chop shop.

The individuals who were last seen with Daniela, Denson White, Mallory Miller Kenworthy and Randy Capps, all cooperated with the police, but elected not to provide any statements to the media. One day, Julie and to the now five-year-old Cora were driving in the car when Cora suddenly asked, has Mummy passed on? Julie was surprised and asked Cora where she heard such a thing. Cora replied. I've been having dreams about Mummy.

I have dreams about her all the time. Mummy said that she's passed on, but she'll still come to see me all the time. Julie said she was unable to answer the question, but reassured Cora that they would keep looking for Daniela no matter what. Although Cora seemed content with understanding that her mother wasn't coming home, Julie was determined to get answers for the young girl, so she didn't spend her whole life trying to find out the truth of what happened. Life went on, with Julie continuing her efforts to find Daniela by searching online and contacting

media outlets, including Casefile. Daniela became involved in the story in December 2018 and had ongoing contact with several of Daniela's family members, friends and associates, who provided information that led to the creation of this episode. In the last week of April 2019, nine and a half months after Daniela went missing, an off-duty sergeant for the Mobile Police Department dive team was mapping out areas for training exercises at the Bayou-Sara River in Saraland, approximately 17 miles north of the Shell gas station where Daniela was last seen.

The Bayou-Sara is a long, wide and gentle stream that expands out from the Mobile River. The main access point to the river is via the Bayou-Sara boat launch, a public park in a quiet residential area that's popular with locals for fishing, boating, swimming and other water activities. The park is surrounded by tall trees, shrubbery and grass, with a long wooden footbridge extending along the banks of the water. Towards the drop-off of the Bayou-Sara public boat launch, where the water reached between 20 and 30 feet deep, the sergeant noticed something unusual.

He marked the spot using a GPS, recognizing it as a training opportunity for the dive team to investigate further. On Thursday May 2, 2019, the sergeant returned to the area along with the dive team and additional equipment. They quickly identified the submerged item to be a vehicle and notified the police department that they had located what was most likely a stolen car. Upon further inspection, it was determined that the vehicle was a dark blue Chevy Cruze with pearl motors tags and that there were human remains inside.

Due to the sensitive nature of the crime scene, the vehicle and body were left underwater as investigators consulted experts to determine the best plan of action to retrieve them while preserving evidence. In the meantime, the Mobile Police Department stated they would be treating the case as a homicide until an autopsy could confirm the certain. On Friday May 3, the vehicle was retrieved from the murky water and drained on site. There was damage to the front panels on both sides, but other than that, the vehicle was in relatively good condition.

The car and remains were then transferred to a secure facility to be thoroughly examined. In a press conference, Mobile Police Chief Lawrence Batiste revealed that the vehicle belonged to Daniela Vianne, but that due to the level of decomposition, it could be weeks before the body was formally identified. He did confirm that the body belonged to an adult female that couldn't say how long the vehicle had been in the water or whether it had been pushed or driven in. When asked if the body was in the driver's seat, Chief Batiste said he couldn't confirm the exact position it was found in.

He added that given the amount of time the car had spent underwater, it was unlikely that investigators would be able to determine where the body was originally positioned when it entered the river. Investigators had scoured other bodies of water during previous searches for Daniela, but never in Saraland. Caseball spoke to Daniela's friend, Shana Hayden, who had been involved in the search from the outset. Shana said there was absolutely no reason for Daniela to be in the Saraland area, and

she was therefore convinced foul play was involved. Shana said Daniela wouldn't have driven that far without her phone, as she wasn't familiar with the area. She believed someone had either driven Daniela's car out there, or rode in the vehicle with her. Another theory is that her car could have been towed to that location. When speaking to the press, Shana said, I don't think Daniela drove her car 20-some-odd miles north of Mobile and drove into a boat

launch. She loves Korra and never would have done that. It's not plausible. Even though it does bring some closure, it just kind of brings up this whole other box of what-ifs and hows and who's. We are content with knowing what has happened, and now we just need to find out who did it. It'll only be a matter of time before the truth does come out. A co-worker of Daniela's named Christy Meisner told the press that Daniela viewed the purchase

of her new car as the start of her new life, but that, quote, it wound up being a curse, which is really hard for a lot of us to wrap our brains around. The person who did this is not going to get away with it. We won't stop. Just as hard as we were searching for her, they will come down. It will happen. A resident of the Bayou-Sara area voiced her opinion to local news station NBC 15 that given the amount of boat traffic, fishing and swimming that occurred in the river,

there was no way the vehicle had been there undetected for over nine months. She said that locals didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, and that no skid marks or tire tracks were ever reported on the boat ramp. On Sunday, May 5, Julie Dykes-Thomas told the press that although the family was still waiting for the results of DNA testing, she believed the body found in the car was Daniela. She stated, It's just a numbing realisation that she's really gone. That's what you've been working for for so long and striving for and begging for and praying for.

When you finally get that, it's not closure. On the evening of Friday, May 10, one week after the vehicle was found, a candlelit vigil was held at the Bayou-Sara boat launch for members of the community to lay flowers and pay their condolences to Daniela's friends and family. A friend told those gathered, Everyone here has prayed for this, and granted it's not the outcome that we wanted. It was our prayers and our pushing that got us here. Help us figure out what happened so we can get justice and she can rest peacefully.

I don't think that her car, ending up 17 miles from the last place that she was seen, is an accident. You have to get in your car and either drive down the interstate or drive through town to a whole other town or suburb city of Mobile, and then go back through this winding neighbourhood, over-road tracks, making this curvy road that kind of goes back and forth and tucks into this neighbourhood. It's not an area that's just right off the road that you would absolutely drive into. You kind of have to know where you're going to get there. It's not a real publicized area that gets a lot of attention. A lot of people know about it, but it's just kind of one of those hidden spots tucked away because you grew up there or somebody

took you there or whatever. It's not a place that you just get in your car and accidentally drive to. It's just that night overall. I do think that it's possible that there was an accident that happened that night, but I don't think that her and her car ending up in the water miles from where she was last known to be was an accident. Also, I don't know if other people will really understand it, but Fairland here is one of those places that you don't drive through if you're messed up. You shouldn't drive when you're drunk, but you know how there are places that you just go to avoid if you're doing something wrong, whether you're drinking or whatever it may be. Fairland is kind of one of those places. They have that kind of police force that just doesn't

really, it kind of takes no shit. That's kind of the other thing with us is for her not only to have driven from the shell to the launch, but to have driven through Fairland in the shape that we heard her in on the audio and not having a passive destruction or anything from A to B. I'm not saying it can't happen, but you'd think that something would have happened up until she'd side-flights a guardrail or a car or a mailbox or whatever drove through somebody's yard, especially on that road leading back to the launch because it literally is like a snake. I mean, you come off of 43, you go over some railroad tracks, it snakes to the right a little bit, it snakes to the left, you go straight for a minute, and then you snake back to the right through a

fork in the road that goes three different ways. You know what I mean? One of those is a dead end and the other two comes to a stop sign where then you have to take a left to go to the launch. So it's just a lot to it, more than just getting in your car and driving down the road. On May 14, Mobile Police confirmed the body belonged to 25-year-old Daniela Vayan and announced that the evidence indicated her death was the result of an accident. Their early investigation had revealed that certain manipulations to the inside of the vehicle indicated that Daniela had been alive when her car entered the river. The vehicle was in park, which they believed Daniela had done in a panic when her car hit the water.

Daniela's family were told that she was found in the driver's seat with no seatbelt on. According to sources, the keys were still in the ignition, but the car was not turned on. The emergency brake was set, all the doors were locked and the rear window on the driver's side was down about two inches. Buttons that enabled the driver to lower any one of the vehicle's four windows were located on the driver's side door with a button to unlock all the doors located in the center of the dashboard. This raised the question that if Daniela was in the driver's seat and conscious at the time her vehicle entered the water, why hadn't she attempted to unlock the doors or open her window?

Preliminary autopsy results didn't reveal any trauma to her body, but given the level of decomposition and amount of time she had spent in the water, the official cause of death was unable to be determined. Similarly, the results of toxicology testing later came back inconclusive. Police Chief Lawrence Batiste told NBC 15, This is still an active investigation, but everything that we have found to this point indicates to us or appears to us to be an accidental incident. He clarified that the people of Mobile had nothing to worry about, and that the police, quote, are not looking for someone who is going around abducting women.

A statement released by Daniela's biological mother, Joy, said, Daniela's father and I still have hope in the homicide division due to the fact that they have not closed the case and it's still ongoing. Daniela's Chevy Cruze was later auctioned off, presumably by the relevant insurance company, and was shipped to the Ukraine to be used for parts. The auction notes mentioned that the vehicle had sustained flood damage and that it came without keys. Photos included with the auction documentation showed that the back passenger seat belt had been completely removed. Investigators have never made any mention of this.

The Mobile Police Department has been reluctant to publicly release any further details about Daniela's death. They have confirmed to the family that the investigation is open, but not being actively worked on. Many of Daniela's loved ones believe that her death was not an accident, as many unanswered questions and inconsistencies remain. In the months following the discovery of Daniela Vayan's body, those close to her distributed signs around Mobile demanding justice for Daniela. Around the start of 2020, several of the signs began disappearing. Julie and Shana continue to seek answers and hope that those who may know something of importance

will come forward. you